Steve Revo's blog

I've moved!

Hi neighbors. I've moved my blog to TypePad. You can now visit me at http://revo.typepad.com/nate/. You can follow me on TypePad by visiting my profile. See you there!

September 2009

My Nate,
You have quite the imagination!  The stories you come up with are crazy and they always include someone bonking their head. 

Talk about kids saying the craziest things! 

Here was the conversation at dinner the other night:
Nate: "Hey Dad?"
Dad: "Yes Nate?"
Nate "I can have beer when I get bigger?"
Dad: "Yes, when you're an adult, you can have beer."
Nate: "When I get bigger I can have beer and I will share beer with all my friends."

One night you sat next to Daddy on the couch and said "You're my best friend!". It was so cute!

The games and ways you play with your toys is also quite a sight to see.  You construct things and find new adventures in the simplest items - boxes, brooms, blankets.  You still love to clean and often go around imitating us.  They other night you were playing with your vacuum and you picked everything up off the floor and piled it onto the sofa - including Dada's shoes.

We noticed that you're starting to act more grown up and have a little bit of restraint.  Before, you never knew what an "inside voice" was and now you whisper when we ask you to if little sister is sleeping.  You've always been good at saying please and thank you, but we hear you use it more often now, which is great.  Also, when we ask you to wait for something, like when you want "something else" to eat and I'm busy with Riley, most of the time you're good about understanding.

You started to like school - finally!  I bought you a big Spiderman backpack and you wear it with pride.  We don't have anymore screaming incidents when we drop you off and when we come to get you at night you often say "five more minutes?" which means you actually want to stay longer.

My little man is growing up!

Love,
Mama

July/August 2009

When we were swimming at the neighborhood pool, you decided to try swimming in the big pool without holding on to me.  You did great!  You swam from one end of the pool to the other with your lifejacket. From then on, it was no holds bar - you didn't even want me to swim beside you! 

You moved to the pre-school class at daycare.  They sent home a note outlining what it would entail, which is basically structured learning and play.  Dada and I thought to ourselves...structure...hmmm...Nate has a strong will and a mind of his own, so this will be very interesting!  So far you've only had one "red" day - the note said you hit your teacher when she tried to redirect you.  The rest of the days have been an even split between "yellow" and "green". 

Another big change was the birth of baby Riley, your sister.  We all welcomed her into the world on August 14th.  You're such a good big brother.  You always ask about your baby sister and try to help her when she's crying.  You love giving her kisses and just like daddy, you look at her and say "You're so cuuuuute!" while you pretend to pinch her chubby cheeks.

Grandma came to visit us for a week.  You would go into her room every morning, climb in bed and press on her nose while saying "nose, nose".  You played outside, colored, and showed Grandma all your new birthday toys.  You didn't want her to leave.

 

June 2009

Things you do that make us laugh:

* You love teaching.  You often showing us how to play things - blocks, baseball, cars.  Then you say "Good job, Dad!"
* In the mornings, you stand on the side of our bed and breathe on me until I wake up.  Then you say, "Mom, I want milk! Get me milk!" It always seems to be me you do this to, not Dad.  One morning when I asked you why you said, "cause Daddy's sleeping!"
*Finally, when you can't take it anymore and want dad to get out of bed, you say "Wake Up Lazy Bones!"
* At night when we put you to bed you say "sweet dreams, mom/dad, love you"

Things you love:

* Coloring
* Mowing the yard
* Building blocks
* Playing games on the "movie" (tv) like Wii
* Running through the sprinkler and swimming in the pool
* Your stuffed puppy
* Playing ball

You learned how to use the peddles on your bike!  You still struggle peddling up an incline, but you do great on flat surfaces.  

Keep growing and learning little boy!

Love,

Mama

Change - New Daycare

After much thought and debate, we decided to move you to a new daycare closer to home.  We loved the daycare you were at, but they didn't travel to your elementary school.  We wanted to move you so that you had time to adjust and meet new friends.  I'm sure you'll miss your old friends, especially Jaylee and Ms. Jaye.

Today was your last day at your old school.  Ms. Jaye sent home the following note:

Krista, Jesse, Nate & Baby,
We are going to miss all of you here very much at La Petite!  I hope Nate enjoys it at the other La Petite as much as he does here.  He is such a joy to have here and we will miss his love and laughter everyday.  We hope you come visit and we would love to see the new addition when she arrives!  I hope it goes well with you all!

P.S. Nate - I hope your new teacher loves you as much as I do!  Have fun!  Keep learning and growing!

Love,
Ms. Jaye

I know leaving places you're familiar with and people you've grown up with is hard, but I have no doubt you'll meet new friends in no time.

May 2009

Nate,
I didn't think talking more was possible, since you already talk so much, but I was wrong.  All you do is talk!  Why mom, why?  What's that mom?  Wanna play blocks with me mom?  Wanna watch a movie with me dad?  Wanna color dad?  It is fun to ask about your day and see the wheels in your head turning.  I love to listen about what you did and what you liked the most.

At bedtime or naptime, you often sing Jingle Bells.  I'll hear you singing and then you shout "HEY!" You love that song!  You also like singing to the movie soundtracks - Life is a Highway (Cars).  We were listening to the radio one day and a song on the Surf's Up soundtrack came on.  All of a sudden you got really excited and shouted "penguin movie mom, that song is on penguin movie!".  You were right!  You still love to dance.  Whenever a song comes on in your movie, you say "I wanna dance, mom".  Then you get up and dance all around the living room.

Dada started an oldie but goodie with you.  You think it's so funny.  You walk around saying "guess what? chicken butt!".

You love to give kisses!  We'll be walking or pushing you in a shopping cart and you'll reach for our hand or arm and just start kissing it all over.  You're a very affectionate child, which we both love.

You started talking more about the baby.  Daddy and I are trying to prepare you the best we can because we know it will be a big change.  You want to kiss the baby (my belly) all the time.
 
Dada: "Nate, are you going to help us take care of the baby?"
Nate: "Yes. Babies poop?"
Mama: "Yes, Nate, babies poop."
Nate: "Yuck! Why mom, why do babies poop their pants?"
Mama: "Because they don't know how to use the potty yet."
Nate: "Yeah, and babies can't walk."

Genius :)

We love you!
Mama

Officially Potty Trained!

Daycare presented you with an official potty training certificate today.  You did it before you turned 3 and we are so proud of you!

April 2009

Nate,
You can now count to 20, sort of.  You still combine 15 & 16, but you're getting there!  You can hold an actual conversation with Dada and I now.  When we ask you about your day and what you did, you tell us all the little details like playing with flash cards, eating noodles, reading with Jaylee, your best friend, etc.  It's nice to hear a recap and see what you liked doing the most.

Your afternoon nap-time is getting shorter, just about an hour now.  I remember when you used to sleep 3 hours!  We also started putting you to bed later - 8pm - because you were not tired at the usual time.  It's inevitable, you're growing up!

You're doing really good at potty training.  Most days you don't have accidents at all, which is reassuring.  Sometimes though, if you're pre-occupied with play, we have to tell you to go.  I have no doubt you'll be there by the time your baby sister comes.  One day at a time.

We enrolled you in Happy Feet Soccer this month.  Every Tuesday morning you get to participate in the class and you seem to LOVE it.  When we pick you up from daycare, I ask what you did in soccer class.  You proudly show me your "power stamp" that you get at the end of every class and tell me all about the things you learned...."we kicked the ball slooowly", "we said, go Giants". Too cute!

Love,
Mama

March 2009

In the mornings you go looking for daddy if he's not near us.  You say "where's daddy" and I say "I don't know, hollar for him".  You yell "Daddy....DADDY" and if you still don't get an answer you yell "JESS...JESS".  I guess you've heard Mama yelling Jess, come upstairs or Jess, do this or that one too many times!

You've been wearing pull-ups and asking to use the potty the past few months.  A few mornings we woke up to find you naked as a jaybird from the waist down.  When asked what happened you said "I wet".  It seems you didn't want to wait for us to get out of your pee soaked morning diaper!

We noticed you were getting more interested in the whole experience so we put you in big boy underwear.  You've been doing pretty good - only 1 or 2 accidents per day the first week.  The second week you even had an accident free day!

You can sing all your ABC's and we often hear you singing it to yourself in the morning or at bedtime.  When you get really excited, you shout them. 

I was surprised to hear you counting past ten one day - you went all the way to 13!

It's exciting to see you learn so many things!

Mama

 

January / February 2009

Mama is beginning to get behind in your blog updates, so I'm cheating and combining the first two months of 2009. 

Your enjoyment for movies continues to grow.  We added Madagascar, Madagascar 2 and Bolt (aka the puppy movie as you call it) to your library.  Every night when you get home you say "I wanna watch a movie."  We had to make a rule that movie night only occurs a few times during the week so that you didn't turn into a couch potato.  On the non-movie nights, we struggle to keep you entertained.  We've been playing with Play-Doh, markers, puzzles, the football and even letting you ride your 4-wheeler downstairs.  On those nights, Mama and Dada are exhausted!

I found a new item that keeps you entertained for hours at a time - the Diego Easy-Ups box.  You rip it into little pieces until nothing exists.  It's like you're obsessed with peeling the cardboard.

You've become really hard headed and opinionated these past couple of months and you frequent time-out often.  You even said "I don't like you mommy!".  The more you don't get your way, the more out of control you get.  Now I know what a true temper tantrum is like.  I'm hoping we can get your anger issues under control quickly.

You still manage to do some of the cutest things - saying I wuv you at bedtime, giving Mama and Dada pets/pats on our arm and back when you lay with us in the mornings, helping us with whatever we are doing.  We grilled out one night and you kept bringing the grilling supplies downstairs to Dada.  When Mama makes something you say - "I wanna watch", then you pull a chair up to the counter and look to see what I'm doing.

Your vocabulary is getting better and better.  We noticed you can annunciate more letters in the alaphbet now.  You know our names and say them when we ask.  The next item is teaching you our address.

Love you,
Mama